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My wife Dana, myself, and our friend Raymond have been making music together using MG2 for almost 8 years now (!) and have shared our music on the web during that time (first on mp3.com and later on Soundclick). During that time, we've gotten some really good reviews, and had a couple of #1 songs on soundclick. That said, I've been getting frustrated as I've begun entering our songs in competitions recently and have yet to get past the 1st round. I know our music is not commercial in any sense (and we like it that way), and we're more experimental, but sometimes I wonder if we should try to go for a more "pop" route. I've been writing music now for almost 20 years (since I was 11), and music's my life. I want to begin to start selling our music, but these recent failures have caused me to rethink this whole thing.

Do you ever get frustrated to the point where you think "why even bother"?

The music industry is a cruel beast. I would say that no matter what other people think, just keep doin the stuff you want to do. The moment you make music just in the hope someone else will like it, or changing your sound to cater for others taste is when youve 'sold out'. Sure, if you can do it well, get some recognition,then £££$$$$$ but will you be truly happy?

Being commercial or 'sold out' is not a bad thing though. It comes down to money. If you are paying bills and enjoying life then fairplay! If you are an experimental artist then use one name. When you make music for the masses... use another name! Having many production names (like norman cook) allows an artist to make different styles without losing integrity, plus its the production name that gets signed to a label,not the artist, so they're not tied in and are free to do what they really want outside the lable. Number 1 with bubble gum pop but at the same time someone's playing a deathcore white label(by the same producer) in some grotty underground club! (It does happen!)Keep doin what u love guys. If you love 'pop' then fine,go for it.

pillagemyvillage

the best thing about a timgul meet would be seeing everyone dancing (after a major amount of beer etc loll!) to your music... what an amazing feeling to have your music banging out, and everyone gyrating (even if its just 3-4 people lol!)... that is my ultimate!

My gripe with the music industry is how only specific genres seems to be accepted. If you still do '90s eurodance or if you do eurobeat you're most likely gonna turned down by labels saying it doesn't sounds enough like what everyone's listen too, and if you do UK hardcore and live in Canada, good luck getting signed. It can easily be seen in stores like the HMV retail stores over here. You go in the R&B/Dance/Electronica section and you're lucky if you find any UK hardcore compilations and eurodance is dissapearing fast,same for old-style trance or pure trance. Heck, I never ever seen a trance, eurodance or UK hardcore album by one single artist over here before, except DJ Tiesto and Kate Ryan (these are extremly rare too). Over here all you get mostly is lounge, buddha bar, electronic jazz, electro, funk and house music. No more hard stuff, and anything that is too melodic or has good chord progression gets turned down and songs that works well over here often ends up being a fad. Because of this I have no plans on selling my music in the future, unless I decide to sell it online, but even then I'm unsure if I would bother. I prefer to do it for the freeware world

I agree that simply having someone - anyone - listen to something of mine and actually enjoy it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling, all over. Being paid for it would only put icing on an already sweet cake.

I don't mind the idea of just putting it out there for people to use, as they wish - as long as they credit me for it. You wanna make a megamix and you think you can work a part of one of my tunes into it? Go for it! - just list me as the author in your song list and let me know about it so I can grab a copy. You wanna use one of my tracks as a them song for your podcast? Great! - mention my name, every once in a while, and let me know where to find it.

Of course, I don't really expect anything like that to happen - I'm just saying...

I don't mind the idea of just putting it out there for people to use, as they wish - as long as they credit me for it. You wanna make a megamix and you think you can work a part of one of my tunes into it? Go for it! - just list me as the author in your song list and let me know about it so I can grab a copy. You wanna use one of my tracks as a them song for your podcast? Great! - mention my name, every once in a while, and let me know where to find it.

Selling my music? I'll sell it myself thanks; I'll choose a price that suits both you and me (an average CD costs around £10 here; let's just say that even if I made an album that was a 2-disc set, it'd be cheaper. ). PayPal and then mail-ordered CD.

Using my music? More complex I'm afraid. Don't want to go into detail.